![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
about_faces
But embarrassed as I am to admit this, I've just never felt up to the task of delving into that book with the attention it deserves, much less measuring how its ideas and title character(s) compares and contrasts with Two-Face. I read the book for the first and only time a few years ago, and at the time, there didn't seem to be anything I could say about it in regards to Harvey. I mean to reread it, but by this point, it's an intimidating prospect.
Besides, it's not enough to simply review the book itself, considering that there are over a hundred adaptations in film alone, most of which take liberties with the source material to explore Jekyll and Hyde through all manner of different social and cultural contexts! God, I'd love to review the Spencer Tracy version alone, but I know that's a controversial version, so I'd definitely have to see the Fredich March version, and before too long, I'd feel obligated to review everything from Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!*
But of all the adaptations, one version stands out: the Classics Illustrated version from the title's brief revival in 1990. This version was adapted and illustrated by John K. Snyder III, an artist who has never quite gotten the due he deserves. Coming from the same late-80's school of comics art as Matt Wagner, Mark Badger, Bill Sienkiewicz, Tim Sale, and Kyle Baker (seriously, did these guys all go to the same club or something?), JKS3 is a long-time great of comics who has never achieved the fame of his peers, which is a damn shame. Considering that I just wrapped up my review of Wagner's Faces, it's only fitting that we look at an actual Jekyll adaptation by one of Wagner's peers (and collaborators)!
Thankfully, our own intrepid Ed Saul, AKA the Gentleman Mummy, has graciously offered up his services to review JKS3's adaptation of TSCoDJ&MH himself! My gratitude is outmatched only by my excitement to read this examination of Stevenson's book as depicted by Snyder, especially since Ed is someone who definitely knows and appreciates what makes Harvey a great character. Take it away, Mr. Saul!
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Webster's Dictionary defines it as "For the love of God, stop calling us! Does a restraining order mean nothing in this day and age?!", and it's not wrong - but such an oblique clarification fails to capture the vast meaning and theme encompassed by R. L. Stevenson's great horror classic. Forward, then, the "Classics Illustrated" edition, published by those sons of fun, First Comics and the Berkeley Comics Publishing group, and adapted by John K Snyder III - he of Grendel, Suicide Squad and a short-lived Doctor Mid-Nite series (thank you so much Wikipedia).
Stevenson's book - first published in 1886 - still fascinates scholars today because of the numerous interpretations one can make of it - the blindingly obvious upper class vs lower class, cities vs countryside, Darwinism vs Creationism, the Mind vs the Body, heterosexuality (and chastity) vs homosexuality (and promiscuity). According to one professor I've met, Hyde is obviously a metaphor for repressed homoeroticism due to his tendency to enter Jekyll's house "by the back door". Mind you, he was very nervous when he said this, so I didn't take him too seriously.
According to most accounts, Stevenson dreamt up Hyde as 'a fine bogey' while having a feverish nightmare. Why is it, I ask you, that the most well-known horror writers come up with their great works purely by chance? Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe - even *shudder* Stephenie Meyer returns to the well of "I Had A Bad Dream This One Time". Bloody infuriating. The rest of us have to actually think up stuff.
Snyder, on the other hand, got the job on the back of First and Berkely acquiring the rights to the popularly vast comic book series "Classics Illustrated" and deciding to reboot it with an array of fresh new talent. The "Berkeley-First" series stuck to the originals' tendency to feature glossy, painted covers - notable exceptions being Gahan Wilson's adaptation of Poe's The Raven, P. Craig Russell's masterful version of that author's The Fall of the House of Usher, and this very volume.**
(Seriously, look at that cackling Maddie Usher. Brrr...)
Already we perceive in Snyder's cover a visual similarity between Stevenson's 'bogey' and our beloved Harvey - though, incidentally, he also shares more than a few similarities with Stevenson's other famous villain, Long John Silver - from the crippling mutilation to the wild mood swings to the shaky allegiances. Writers, take note: this is another good reason to revisit the possibility of Pirate Two-Face. Apart from, y'know, PIRATE. TWO-FACE. But you can also see how Snyder hints at the concept of Hyde representing the darker and less pleasant aspects of London itself, his twisted black locks and their streaks of yellow and blue blending in with the cityscape above.
And then there's the title page.
(YIKES)
When I first read this, I was a six-year-old child browsing comic books in the library, and this made me actually take two steps back, in case Hyde jumped off the page to grab me (a foolish move in hindsight, as I was holding the comic at the time). Here we have shades of Hyde's Darwinian heritage, as a representation of the hairy beast that Darwin had irrevocably shown civilised man to hold within in him (the book was written 22 years after Darwin's Descent of Man, where he linked Evolution to mankind's development, something he'd deliberately avoided in his earlier, better-known work).
But where other artists in comic and book form have shown Hyde as an ape-like monster, Snyder draws him as a repulsive shrivelled goblin - avatar of the poor, diseased and corrupt, his face set in a fiendish rictus grin and his skin seemingly darkened with chimney soot. Note how his clothes and stick seem too big for him - as if by wearing Jekyll's clothing he is trying to assume a form larger than his own. This is a theme Victorian writers often returned to, equating the common man with the savage tendencies in mankind - e.g., the industrious Morlocks of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, or the criminal corpses harvested by Dr. Frankenstein to create his monster in Shelley's novel.
On to the first few pages. Note how - continuing from my idea of the characters reflecting the cityscape - the characters and panels are drawn with mathematical precision and straightness...Snyder even goes so far as to omit Stevenson's addendum that our hero, the ever-so-mild-mannered attorney(!) G. J. Utterson, despite being lean, long, dusty, dreary (like a tower or a mansion), is also somehow loveable the object being to only emphasise his role as a man of the city.
"I incline to Cain's heresy," [Utterson] used to say quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way." In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men. And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour."
(That last line is "tut-tut", by the by.)
Into this carefully-constructed order swoops Hyde, "like some damned juggernaut". Unlike Utterson or Enfield, his shadowy form spills out of the panels, defying restriction; he is only forced to be placed inside the lines - and the rules of society - when Enfield collars him. Afterward, he is bitter and angry, and still too big for the panels to contain him.
Important to note here also is that Snyder quickly establishes a grim signature look for Hyde - the one eye squinting as if blinded by the light, the other leering and staring with wild enthusiasm. I noted when analysing the book that - as a being who is "pure evil", bereft of moral scruples - Hyde tends to inspire violent and anti-social behaviour in those he encounters, as if they see the darkness of their own hearts reflected in him. Snyder capitalises on that - the poor trampled girl and some of the violent citizens developing their own leering eyes. Even Renfield's monocle seems to reflect it; or on the other hand, is Hyde's eye an attempt at imitating or mocking the monocle, symbol of the upper classes and their scrutinising, judging eyes?
Another example of Snyder's distinctive penmanship occurs when Utterson goes seeking out Hyde:
"In the course of his nightly patrols, he had long grown accustomed to the quaint effect with which the footfalls of a single person, while he is still a great way off, suddenly spring out distinct from the vast hum and clatter of the city. Yet his attention had never before been so sharply and decisively arrested; and it was with a strong, superstitious prevision of success that he withdrew into the entry of the court."
"The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house."
Note the artful use of contrasting colours - yellow amongst the cool night-time blues to reflect the piercing sharpness of Hyde's footfalls and the apparent light and innocence of Jekyll's house. Hyde enters through "the old dissecting-room door" - perhaps reflecting the darker side of the medical profession, as put about by unscrupulous fellows such as Burke and Hare.
But what of the man himself? How was Dr. Jekyll?
"A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily."
"The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes."
Brr. That up there in the last panel is, in my opinion, exactly the effect being attempted by another Snyder - one Scott, of the current "Batman" ongoing - with his ridiculously awful concept for the Joker. And what's more, it does it all in a single panel. Unlike the shrivelled nervous wreck he later becomes in Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this Jekyll is initially a healthy, happy man unaffected by Hyde's activities. But Snyder runs with Stevenson's description of the largesse of that face, making it all the easier to use it as a mask, from within which Hyde's beady narrowed eyes peer.
"It seems she was romantically given, for she sat down upon her box, which stood immediately under the window, and fell into a dream of musing."
"The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth."
Artfully, Snyder understands that the removal of description and sound was the best way to get across the violence of the scene. This is a key indicator of Hyde's resembling the "inner savage" many people feared in a post-Darwin society; like a caveman, his weapon is a club. There's also a little bit of criticism of Romanticism, that artistic movement which finds poetic beauty in natural and traditional scenes while ignoring the horrors implicit in them: the maidservant is not unlike Tennyson's Lady of Shallot, and Hyde beats ugly reality into her by proxy of poor Sir Danvers - a poor substitute for Sir Lancelot.
Of course, Hyde disappears off the face of the Earth, having drawn blood. Of course, no-one in the seedy and depraved circles in which he travels can tell of his whereabouts. Of course, Henry Jekyll is at first depressed and shattered - but then enters into exceedingly good spirits with his old friend Utterson and colleague Dr. Lanyon.
But then...Jekyll shuts the door to Utterson, seemingly unwilling to admit any guests, and Lanyon falls gravely ill seemingly without cause. Of Henry Jekyll, he states "I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead!", and elaborates: "Some day, Utterson, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you". The art demonstrates Lanyon has been seemingly 'corrupted' by Hyde, as the townspeople were earlier; his eyes on his sick-bed recall that panel above, with Jekyll watching after Utterson.
Utterson receives a letter from Dr. Jekyll forgiving Lanyon and asking that "You must suffer me to go my own dark way". Lanyon dies, and leaves Utterson a letter, "not to be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr. Henry Jekyll". Wheels within wheels, shadows upon shadows.
But Utterson, ever a good lawyer, is not to be deterred.
"The middle one of the three windows was half-way open; and sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll."
" They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes."God forgive us, God forgive us," said Mr. Utterson."
I got chills when I first saw that final panel, and I get chills still. Culminating his representation of the darkness of the city, Hyde has overtaken Jekyll's house entirely, not unlike the manner in which Poe's House of Usher seems to be as degraded as Usher himself. Where once Hyde was trapped inside Jekyll, now Jekyll sits trapped inside "Hyde".
Then comes "The Last Night".
"The man's appearance amply bore out his words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of the floor. "I can bear it no more," he repeated."
"Mr. Utterson's nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he re-collected his courage and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize of the cabinet door."
"All this last week (you must know) him, or it, or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his mind."
"So far the letter had run composedly enough, but here with a sudden splutter of the pen, the writer's emotion had broken loose. "For God's sake," he had added, "find me some of the old.""
"Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its back and beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in clothes far too large for him, clothes of the doctor's bigness; the cords of his face still moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone..."
"MY DEAR UTTERSON,—When this shall fall into your hands, I shall have disappeared, under what circumstances I have not the penetration to foresee, but my instinct and all the circumstances of my nameless situation tell me that the end is sure and must be early. Go then, and first read the narrative which Lanyon warned me he was to place in your hands; and if you care to hear more, turn to the confession of Your unworthy and unhappy friend, HENRY JEKYLL.""
Once again, the grand redness of the palette reflects violence and savagery; in pursuit of Jekyll, the two men were forced to stoop to the level of Hyde. I also love that Utterson has to smash the panel borders themselves open, just as Hyde himself defied them at the beginning of the story. That corrupting influence again.
So here are the final two codas, delivered in the form of paper evidence - our hero is a lawyer, not a detective, so the denouement must be written rather than spoken aloud.
Lanyon's narrative begins with him receiving a letter from Dr. Jekyll, during the initial period following Sir Danvers Carew's murder. He is politely requested to break into Jekyll's lab and take a draw from one of his cupboards; then return to his own home and receive a guest of Jekyll's acquaintance at midnight, allowing him full use of the drawer.
Doing as instructed, Lanyon sits in his study and loads a revolver. Midnight arrives.
"My visitor was, indeed, on fire with sombre excitement."
"He sprang to it, and then paused, and laid his hand upon his heart: I could hear his teeth grate with the convulsive action of his jaws; and his face was so ghastly to see that I grew alarmed both for his life and reason."
"Will you be wise? Will you be guided?"
"He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp..."
"My life is shaken to its roots..."
That monologue, by the by, beginning with "And now to settle what remains", is my favourite bit in the book and one of my favourite monologues of all time - and the art truly does it justice. It's only in this epilogue, as well as the following one, that Stevenson becomes obviously metafictional: in Hyde's caution to Poole, he cautions the entire scientific community of his time, a caution similar to the many put about by H. G. Wells in his work. Like Mephistopheles in Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, he is simultaneously horrifying and enticing - promising great power but at great price. The periodic table serves as a moody backdrop; but notice how Hyde's ugly laughter is spelled out in bloody letters over every element.
That great price proves too much for Lanyon, however; whether because of the destruction of his preconceptions of science and mankind, or because of the horrific knowledge of his friend's misdeeds, he wastes away and dies. So much for Lanyon, then; on to Jekyll's own final confession, which I post in full, without interruption, because I love how Snyder handles it.
"...I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life."
" I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil; and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine."
"...for me, in my impenetrable mantle, the safety was complete. Think of it—I did not even exist!"
"Henry Jekyll stood at times aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde; but the situation was apart from ordinary laws, and insidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience. It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty. Jekyll was no worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde."
"At the sight that met my eyes, my blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and icy. Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde."
"My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring."
"I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin. After all, I reflected, I was like my neighbours; and then I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect. "
"...had it not been for his fear of death, he would long ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin.But his love of life is wonderful...I find it in my heart to pity him."
"This, then, is the last time, short of a miracle, that Henry Jekyll can think his own thoughts or see his own face (now how sadly altered!) in the glass."
"Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end."
And so we close. In the final disclosure we find Hyde to be a creature somewhat reminiscent of Freud's "Oedipus Complex", in the way he plays tricks upon Jekyll and slashes his (their?) father's portrait.
Yet a question still remains, the most important of all: Where does Jekyll end and Hyde begin?
It doesn't seem an easily answerable question, does it? Jekyll begins his narrative carefully explaining how he feels the human species a close combination of binary opposites, and hence applies that to himself "even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both". This is where he most shares his similarity with Harvey Dent/Two-Face; he feels both sides "in earnest" and both his sins and his regrets are his own. But where Harvey repressed his violent and anti-social urges until they were forced out of him, Jekyll actively seeks their release; he thinks it'll be good for him.
He intially creates his transcendental formula to separate the bad and the good so as to purify the one and purge the other. Supposedly this would be for the good of everyone, once commercially applied: but when you look at it properly, the entire thing is done incredibly unscientifically, without a shred of caution, measuring of variables, testing. As far as we know, as soon as he had the idea he slapped together a mix of the necessary chemicals and downed it in one without even writing down the time and date. This of course is the irony: that his sloppiness in carrying out his 'experiment' causes it to go out of control.
When Jekyll first transforms, he notes the difference between Hyde and other humans: Hyde is smaller, simpler, "more express and single" - because, alone, he is not a mix of 'good' and 'bad' traits but is evil entirely. But as a result of this, every time Hyde tests the bars of his cell - stooping to worse and worse depravities - they grow weaker. Jekyll grows weaker.
The great character failing of Jekyll is this: arrogance. In separating his 'good' and 'evil' sides, he hoped to make the one purer and the other freer, but his mistake is to think that the 'good', minus the 'evil' side would still be Henry Jekyll. Of course it wouldn't! It would only be half of Henry Jekyll pretending to be Jekyll, the same way Edward Hyde is half of Henry Jekyll. If he'd approached the experiment sensibly, he'd have given up his life as Jekyll and created two new identities - one dedicated to good, the other to evil - to keep each other in check.
The scene where he changes involuntarily in a park is reminiscent of Jesus' parable wherein a rich man loudly prays for God's blessing, saying how great he is compared to the Tax Collector near him - who is on his knees saying "Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me!". Despite living as Hyde, he still thinks Jekyll superior to Hyde and all of his ilk, forgetting that Hyde is him, and that Hyde has as much will to live as he does - perhaps more, because he has more to lose. When Jekyll ends his statement with "I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end", he is grimly accepting that Hyde has finally grown dominant and will take over following his 'death' - cleverly, this is also Stevenson ending the story for Utterson, and the book for us.
A good comparison would be Harvey Dent of Frank Miller'sThe Dark Knight Returns - because Harvey had the coin to balance out his two selves, and allow each of them a fair chance at self-expression, they're often in a bizarre form of harmony rather than at war, as Jekyll and Hyde are. Take away the coin - and, horribly enough, the scars - and Harvey grows too weak to fight off his violent tendencies, succumbing to them entirely. For al his faults, Two-Face is an improvement on Jekyll and Hyde - he recognises that both of his sides are irrevocably him, and they're both equally worthy of expression.
So again we see the influence of the theme of class struggle - by treating his perceivably "Lower-Class" side as unequal, and going to his deathbed still regarding Hyde as a kind of experiment gone wrong rather than a part of himself, Jekyll sacrifices the whole of himself.
But there's so many ways to approach this and I wouldn't want to deprive any of you of them - and I'm sure I've missed out on plenty of discussion points. So what do you think is the real answer? And how do you think Snyder does with the material? Personally, I couldn't ask for a better adaptation - but I have been wrong before...
Hefner's Afterword: While I shall hash out my thoughts about Ed's analysis with you folks in the comments (where you'll also find my two footnotes), I think it'd be especially fitting to give this whole review a sense of full circle by including this piece I commissioned from Snyder at a comic convention ten or so years ago.
When I requested a Two-Face drawing, he asked me if I wanted it more like the comics, or for him to let loose with his own interpretation. I chose the latter, and even though this was one of his more affordable options, the result is still very cool, as you can see. Hopefully someday, I'll have enough disposable income again to request an even more detailed piece. I'd love to see Snyder really cut loose with a Two-Face story.
